U.S. Formally Withdraws From Unesco,...Agency That Aims to Build Peace Through Cultural Understandin
Sigh. Of course we did. 
http://www.artfixdaily.com/news_feed/2019/01/23/7278-the-us-withdraws-from-unesco-the-un-agency-that-aims-to-build-pea?fbclid=IwAR2nqy0li9tAQMYsgQjRpa8pqUhNZlOMLqWo7GZZC6RqkcFefLSekd63ynU
The U.S. Formally Withdraws From Unesco, the U.N. Agency That Aims to Build Peace Through Cultural Understanding
January 23, 2019 14:49
Trevi Fountain, part of the historic center of Rome that is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This month, the United States officially left Unesco, the United Nations' cultural and scientific organization. The U.S. was a founding member of Unesco, which was established following the horrors of the World War II era.
While the U.S. withdrawal is newly in effect, the Trump administration announced the decision in 2017. The U.S. and Israel stopped paying dues to the organization after Unesco granted full membership to Palestine in 2011. Citing ongoing anti-Israel bias for its departure, the U.S. was over $600 million in arrears when it left. (The U.S. also withdrew for a period beginning in the 1980s, under the Reagan administration, over purported pro-Soviet bias and corruption claims.)
A new director general, Audrey Azouley, has just taken over the top post at Paris-based Unesco. She says the agency has recently made strides to combat anti-Semitism, also telling the New York Times, "I have tried hard to reduce the politicization and work for consenus."
Unesco, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was formed to promote peace through international cooperation in endeavors of education, science and culture. Among its varied missions, Unesco has helped preserve over 1,000 World Heritage Sites in 167 countries, spearheaded cultural projects like the reconstruction of the mausoleums in Timbuktu after their destruction by extremists and launched a series of histories written by locals that tell the world's stories.
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First UK edition
Author: Truman Capote
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Travel literature
Publisher: Random House (US), Heinemann (UK)
Publication date: 1956
The Muses Are Heard is an early journalistic work of Truman Capote. Originally published in The New Yorker, it is a narrative account of the cultural mission by The Everyman's Opera to the U.S.S.R. in the mid-1950s.
Capote was sent to accompany the Opera as it staged a production of Porgy and Bess. First published in two parts, it was later released as a short non-fiction book. The book's title comes from a speech given by one of the Soviet cultural ministry staff, who declared, “When the cannons are heard, the muses are silent. When the cannons are silent, the muses are heard.”
Willis Conover broadcasting with Voice of America in 1969
Born: December 18, 1920, Buffalo, New York
Died: May 17, 1996 (aged 75), Alexandria, Virginia
Occupation(s) Broadcaster, producer
Willis Clark Conover, Jr. (December 18, 1920 – May 17, 1996) was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and television. By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with desegregating Washington D.C. nightclubs. Conover is credited with keeping interest in jazz alive in the countries of Eastern Europe through his nightly broadcasts during the Cold War.
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Voice of America
Conover came to work at the Voice of America, and eventually became a legend among jazz lovers, primarily due to the hour-long program on the Voice of America called Voice of America Jazz Hour. Known for his sonorous baritone voice, many would argue that he was the most important presenter on Voice of America. His slow delivery and the use of scripts written in "special English" made his programmes more widely accessible and he is said to have become the first teacher of English to a whole generation of East European jazz lovers. Conover was not well known in the United States, even among jazz aficionados, as the Voice of America did not broadcast domestically except on shortwave, but his visits to Eastern Europe and Soviet Union brought huge crowds and star treatment for him. He was a celebrity figure in the Soviet Union, where jazz was very popular and the Voice of America was a prime source of information as well as music.
One can oppose Likud's inhumane policies in the West Bank and not be an anti-Semite.
Are we living their reality? This is truly scary times.
Russians everywhere....
